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    September 25, 1852.] ±kk LEAbik 929

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    Vi. ' Ham, Jan. 6, 1852. Ggg^Ell Our Exc...

    exactin ** patients who cannot quite release him , even on a Sunday . From what cause I do not know , but Edwardes ' s manner has evidently altered to me lately , insomuch that nothing but my perfect trust in his thoroughly honest and generous nature would prevent my thinking that I had " worn out my welcome . " I can hardly describe to you the change ; but perhaps its most manifest sign lies in a more studied hospitality , quite different from his matter-of-course welcome at first . It is some passing humour . And I am wrong to complain of that which suggested the thougTit this moment , because t must confess that he always does things in a princely stvle . It is the reward he takes out for his hard work . For our journey

    to-day he made Yseult a present of a carriage- ^ -a plain , convenient , handsome " Clarence , " " thoroughly English , " as Giorgio would call it . This was left to Yseult , Margaret , Stanhope , and myself ; Edwardes himself riding on his own familiar hackney , with Conway on a borrowed horse . How was it , that when Edwardes showed Yseult her new carriage out of the window , a flush , which might have been one of pleasure , deepened on her cheek into the settled glow of pain . How was it , that when the carriage door was closed , and Edwardes had mounted , his willing and obedient brute was made to wince and caper under the needless infliction of the spur ? I cannot guess ; but I know that the cold sunny wind soon blew away all traces of an angry home , and that the drive round by the road was infinitely better than the railway .

    It was a fine specimen of an English winter day—clear , sunny , sharp : the torn veil of clouds dashed in rags before the noisy wind ; the sun shooting his icy ray point blank with the wind , seemed to redouble the sharpness ; the fretwork of branches on the bared trees danced against the blue sky ; the sense of life and motion everywhere forbad the numbing cold , and called forth a healthful glow on Yseult ' s cheek as she faced the panting air . " I never meet the wind careering in this way from the far distance , " she said , " without being made conscious of the extent to which our being is allied with things remote . Here is the wind , which was not long since tossing the spray on the waves of the mid Atlantic , now drying up the meadows , and visiting us poor mortals in mid land with unadulterated breath . Many a frail ship of human hands may be broken up and cast away ; but how many more lives does it strengthen and continue i "

    Margaret sat silent , for she seemed to be enjoying existence too much for active thought ; but she looked her gratitude to the friend who could think so well for her . Stanhope , who sat opposite to Yseult , bent his face outward , to share her thought . " Now , Stanhope , " said Edwardes ' s voice from the other window , " for your sketch-book : that is an effect which you ought not to miss . " " My note-book , poor savant ! " cried Stanhope . " No ; I am not in

    such bondage to the pencil that I cannot escape from it for a day . He who is always making notes puts his mind upon a strain which unfits it for seeing or knowing many things most needful . The artist must know what it is to be , without acting or commentating . " " Nulla dies sine lined , " rejoined Edwardes . " It was a pedant who said it , and his pictures are never free from the note-book . " *

    " Stanhope appears to me , " said Conway , his placid voice breaking in , " to reason better for an artist than for a savant . Science and Art " The controversy dropped astern with the horsemen , as the road narrowed ; and the on-coming darkness cast its shadow of silence over our party in the carriage . I was conscious that the couple on the front seat had gradually drawn closer together ; and their stillness became like that of a mountain , whose heavy outline . stands unchanging against the dim light . I asked Yseult if she did not feel the cold , for the wind came in at her window , but she only shook her head . I leaned back in my own corner , wondering what thoughts could be working in a heart so close to me , and

    us yet so httle seen . . I derived I know not what solace from thinking that the warm atmosphere which lay about the carriage , defying the invading wind to drive it out—the warmth which helped us to defy the cold , was a life common to us both . With the cold and the silence , my thoughts soon turned to dreams ; and when I awoke , with a burst of cheerful voiees and hght from a cottage door , I found , by a shawl spread over me , that 1 had been thu only sleeper . For there had been no thought of me on the opposite seat ; and Yseult ' s voice had no traces of sleep in it as she answere d to the welcomes which came , with outstretched hands , right into the diirk carriage .

    I ' amiliar as I have become with " comfort , " which abounds in the house ° > that prosperous and materialist philosopher , Edwardes , I assure you that never relished it so thoroughly as on passing from the cold dark night » nr to the glowing room , bright with lire , lights , a well-laid dinner table , a" < l kind faces . " Just in time ! " cried Bedford , our host , radiant with satisfact ion . Edwardes had threatened " to bring a friend or two ; " but u n K ' of us poured like a little army into that little room , already well Peopled , it wns charming to see Bedford's inexhaustible heartiness of

    welcome- — . \ y [ H unfeigned and increasing delight at each new intruder . By some voiwlerlul skill and adaptation , We were soon packed round the principal lu - > with a colony of young people at another . Come , JVlr . Conway , we arc ; waiting for grace , " said Bedford . I beg your pardon , " answered Conway , with a start , as if to obey ; " ¦ he reseated himself , and said— " No , do not remind me of iny proh * h > u ° » t of school . Let me have the pleasure of witnessing your own us » gc in your own way . "

    Bedford looked puzzled ; but too polite to raise a controversy , he only said , " Amy , my dear ! " And Amy repeated the usual form of English consecration at dinner , with a tone and manner equally free from pretence or indifference . Why did Conway refuse ? Perhaps , because the whole scene around him was too genuine for his conformity not to jar upon his own conscience . I hail these traces of piety in our sceptical chaplain . Conway has a heart of truth , fit even to redeem the treachery of his hired lips . The roast beef was disappearing by rapid degrees under the masterly hand of Bedford ; and wine began to sparkle prematurely in a glass of welcome after the cold . This is a model of an English family . There is ease and comfort , with that absolute exclusion of ceremony or form which I have never met with except among the English of the best stamp . Bedford is a clerk , high in the confidence of a wealthy bank ; he has been careful , but could not be niggardly ; in liis calling he has obeyed commercial principles without any need of truckling to the baser practices of trade ; for the legitimate trader has not yet introduced adulteration of money . He is happily married ; he has a young family of half-a-dozen children , mostly girls , of whom the two elder are charming young women , modest , frank , blushing rather with happiness than shyness , or only with so much of shyness as lends to their frank manners a delightful grace of softness . Admirable order , and the total absence of effort , were charms combined in the general aspect of the home . While the process of cutting the viands was going on , and the Bedfords were exchanging friendly news , I had leisure to survey the scene I had described , and to note the curious g lances which the children threw at the two " foreigners . " Stanhope , indeed , was known already , and he really looks , at least to my eyes , less of a naturalized Englishman than I do . If the new friends glanced at us , I could not help reconnoitring them . Remembering what I did as to the falsity of appearances , I could not help asking myself , is this all real ? I have already seen enough to know that if you are in a room full of people , you must not presume that the apparent relations of any one are what they seem—you must not take it for granted that Mr . and Mrs . So-and-so , are husband and wife , nor that " old maids" are not matrons , nor that apparent strangers are not spouses , nor that apparent spouses are anything but friendly strangers , independent of each other . Is it so here ? I asked myself : is this comely , buxom , unaffected lady , a Castlemain behind the scenes ? is Bedford an usurer and a profligate ? are those young girls—but I will not pursue my conjectural questions . They were soon answered—by the countenances around me . Mistrust a face that thinks . But these people thought not—except when they mig ht be at their studies , or their household calculations , or the Christmas games at which we played after dinner . Some friends joined us—one or two from London , and a family from the neighbourhood ; and English society was seen in its most genial and happy mood . There was a bunch of inisletoe in the room , by favour of which tho English have inherited certain privileges from the ancient Druids , now resolved into the single one of kissing under it , without offence or scandal . I thought indeed that a . glance of delight from the two elder girls followed certain kisses from two very well-grown young fellows of the native family ; and there was a certain tacit pleasantry , an ostentatious making way for the approach of those licensed cavaliers , which at once distressed and pleased the young ladies . Happiness in future was recognised by the happy parental eye ; and the affections , in genial moderation , had free scope in that snuy parlour . Tell Giorgio , dear Helen , what the word means—if you can make it intelligible to the master of our wide house . The other guests had gone , after a supper full of good viands and laughter ; the younger people had retired , with affectionate caresses to Yseult , as though she had been one of themselves , and we had drawn round the fire , while Bedford and Edwardes played a final duett on two glasses of brandy-and-water ; when our host suddenly cried out—" Bless my soul , where shall we put you all ? " No apologies , no roundabout devices ; honest Bedford was fairly perplexed by his plethora of guests , and so perfectly , had he made us " at home , " that he did not hesitate to let us share ; the dilemma . It was soon settled in his autocratic way ; regretting that he must enforce workhouse classifications , he announced that men and women must part ; Yseult and Margaret should find room , somehow , with the girls ; the men must manage with the sofa or the floor in the parlour . The little difficulty only auldcd to our enjoyment , by bringing us closer together in hardship , and we sate up long after , chatting , talking , disputing agreeably , on many topics , none of much importance ; but in such fashion of perfectly open utterance to the feelings that all of us grew to bo fast friends . Yseult , who had given a loose to exuberant spirits in which I had never seen her , dressed up Amy Bedford in liol | y and inisletoe , miule Kdwardcs kiss her , and tlireatened to inflame George Ilartnell with jealousy ; but all in so guileless a spirit of frolic , that Amy offered no other rebuke except to kiss her dear tormentor . At last we got , deliciously tired , into our beds on Nofai amd floor ; and 1 hiy Jiwaike , thinking of tli ' tf day ' s uneventful pleasantnesses . Could / he content with such life ? Am I very lawless to say , No ? And yet it is not to be despised . Sucli people ais the Bedford : * are not intended to lead the world , nor to undergo great events , but to fill up the level of a quiet country ' s life with u level play of the emotions und actions of life ; auid well would it ho if all the quiet country could he all of such a staple .

    September 25, 1852.] ±Kk Leabik 929

    September 25 , 1852 . ] ± kk LEAbik 929

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 25, 1852, page 21, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_25091852/page/21/